Assessment Of Urban Areas Research Articles

Identification and quantification of trace metal(loid)s in water-extractable road dust nanoparticles using SP-ICP-MS

Resuspension of road dust is a major source of airborne particulate matter (PM) in urban environments. Inhalation of ultrafine particles (UFP; < 0.1 μm) represents a health concern due to their ability to reach the alveoli and be translocated into the blood stream. It is therefore important to characterize chemical properties of UFPs associated with vehicle emissions. We investigated the capability of Single-Particle ICP-MS (SP-ICP-MS) to quantify key metal(loid)s in nanoparticles (NPs; < 0.1 μm) isolated from road dust collected in Toronto, Canada. Water extraction was performed to separate the <1-μm fraction from two different road dust samples (local road vs. arterial road) and a multi-element SP-ICP-MS analysis was then conducted on the samples' supernatants. Based on the particle number concentrations obtained for both supernatants, the metal(loid)-containing NPs could be grouped in the following categories: high (Cu and Zn, > 1.3 × 1011 particles/L), medium (V, Cr, Ba, Pb, Sb, Ce, La), low (As, Co, Ni, < 4.6 × 109 particles/L). The limit of detection for particle number concentration was below 5.5 × 106 particles/L for most elements, except for Cu, Co, Ni, Cr, and V (between 0.9 and 7.7 × 107 particles/L). The results demonstrate that road dust contains a wide range of readily mobilizable metal(loid)-bearing NPs and that NP numbers may vary as a function of road type. These findings have important implications for human health risk assessments in urban areas. Further research is needed, however, to comprehensively assess the NP content of road dust as influenced by various factors, including traffic volume and speed, fleet composition, and street sweeping frequency. The described method can quickly characterize multiple isotopes per sample in complex matrices, and offers the advantage of rapid sample scanning for the identification of NPs containing potentially toxic transition metal(loid)s at a low detection limit.

КОМПЛЕКСНИЙ АНАЛІЗ ТА ОЦІНКА ТЕРИТОРІЙ МІСТА ЯК ПЕРШОЧЕРГОВЕ ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ ПОТРЕБ ДЛЯ ФОРМУВАННЯ КОМФОРТНОГО ТА БЕЗПЕЧНОГО МІСЬКОГО ПРОСТОРУ

The formation of urban space that is comfortable and safe for its users is the highest goal of modern urban planning science. After analysing existing planning practices, it was found that the primary prerequisite for the formation of urban space is to determine the needs of the area, which are established after comprehensive analyses and assessment of the territories. The needs determine the direction of their development. This paper reviews the existing methods of analysis and assessment of territories and identifies their characteristic features that require analysis and assessment to establish clearer actions to improve the space. This article investigates the issue of comprehensive analysis and assessment of urban areas and their impact on the formation, reform and reconstruction of urban space. The purpose of this study was to systematize knowledge on the analysis and assessment of urban areas. Based on the identified problems, the prerequisites for the formation of a comfortable urban space for all levels of needs of its residents and users are established. In a modern city, many processes take place simultaneously, which affect the functional division of territories in accordance with the dominant activities on them. Formulating clear urban planning tasks helps to: preserve the positive and change the negative characteristics of urban space, take into account the views of local residents and space users, analyse investment opportunities, primarily to understand the material prospects of the area. A comprehensive analysis and assessment of the city's territories allows identifying problems or conflict situations in the urban space that negatively affect its functioning, development and comfort. Usually, the definition of city comfort is defined as a separate assessment criterion, but in the author's opinion, it is the formation of a comfortable urban space that is the main task for urbanists, which includes many criteria that ensure the safety, environmental friendliness, identity and modernity of the space in accordance with the needs of the local community. As a result of the research, it was found that supplementing the existing practices and methods of analyzing and assessing urban space in accordance with the current needs of urban planning would allow for a better and more relevant formation of the urban space that is needed by the resident and its user.

Utilizing Google Street View for Rapid Seismic Vulnerability Assessment: Case Study in the City of Manila, Philippines

Earthquake Impact Reduction Study for Metro Manila (MMEIRS) estimated that around 40% of the total number of residential buildings within Metro Manila will either collapse or be affected by the M7.2 generated by the West Valley Fault. Need arises to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of structures in the area to enhance the city’s resilience to seismic hazards. Rapid seismic vulnerability assessments are typically conducted by means of sidewalk surveys. However, advances in digital technologies such as Google Street View (GSV) provide the potential to do remote assessments, particularly amid mobility restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to demonstrate the usefulness of GSV in collecting data needed for rapid seismic vulnerability assessments through the case of buildings in the City of Manila. Six 300 m x 300 m blocks were evaluated using GSV for identifying seismic-related building parameters. Results show the ease of use of GSV in data collection on areas encompassing commercial and residential zones within the city and poses difficulty for blocks dominated by informal settlements. Among the challenges observed in formal zones include blockages in views due to fences, trees, and/or vehicles parked in front. For informal settlements, much of the buildings are not visible in GSV for evaluation thereby necessitating supplemental data collection. Overall, GSV demonstrates usefulness, and has the potential to speed up seismic vulnerability assessments in urban areas in conjunction with existing in situ assessments currently conducted.

Geodatabase per la valutazione speditiva a larga scala della vulnerabilità sismica di un’area urbana complessa: applicazione alla città di Firenze

The seismic vulnerability assessment of a city is usually based on buildings’ characteristics, underground geophysical properties, socio-economic activities, and population density. This research highlights the value of a complete and manageable database for large-scale seismic vulnerability assessment of urban areas: such databases are often missing or partially developed for the majority of Italian cities. This study is based on the creation of a GIS database containing useful information to identify and valuate some indicators of seismic vulnerability in order to understand an earthquake’s effect for the actual configuration of a city. This system could be a growing source of information on cities and, if used in the proper way, a useful tool for monitoring, for seismic vulnerability assessment, and for spatial urban planning. The experience gained in this field of application can be transferred to other situations, both for the procedures and the workflow system.

A Periodic Assessment System for Urban Safety and Security Considering Multiple Hazards Based on WebGIS

With the frequent occurrence of various disasters and accidents, realizing the periodic assessment and visualization of urban safety and security considering multiple hazards is of great significance for safe urban development. In this paper, a periodic assessment system is developed for urban safety and security considering multiple hazards, based on WebGIS. This system consists of an assessment module, a visualization module, and an assistant module that integrates the assessment model to process the assessment data quickly and realizes the visualization of a thematic map and data statistics for rationalizing assessment results. The assessment of a typical urban area was carried out to prove that the created system can effectively conduct periodic assessments and support single-hazard and multi-hazard analysis and auxiliary decision-making. This system can be applied to the grid management and periodic assessment of urban areas at different levels, with high expansibility and application value. It can also help to promote the sustainable construction of a safe and smart city.

Formation and evolution of secondary organic aerosols derived from urban-lifestyle sources: vehicle exhaust and cooking emissions

Abstract. Vehicle exhaust and cooking emissions are closely related to the daily life of city dwellers. Here, we defined the secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) derived from vehicle exhaust and cooking emissions as “urban-lifestyle SOAs” and simulated their formation using a Gothenburg potential aerosol mass reactor (Go:PAM). The vehicle exhaust and cooking emissions were separately simulated, and their samples were defined as “vehicle group” and “cooking group”, respectively. After samples had been aged under 0.3–5.5 d of equivalent photochemical age, these two urban-lifestyle SOAs showed markedly distinct features in the SOA mass growth potential, oxidation pathways, and mass spectra. The SOA/POA (primary organic aerosol) mass ratios of vehicle groups (107) were 44 times larger than those of cooking groups (2.38) at about 2 d of equivalent photochemical age, according to the measurement of scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS). A high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer was used to perform a deeper analysis. It revealed that organics from the vehicle may undergo the alcohol and/or peroxide and carboxylic acid oxidation pathway to produce abundant less and more oxidized oxygenated OAs (LO-OOAs and MO-OOAs), and only a few primary hydrocarbon-like organic aerosols (HOAs) remain unaged. In contrast, organics from cooking may undergo the alcohol and/or peroxide oxidation pathway to produce moderate LO-OOAs, and comparable primary cooking organic aerosols (COAs) remain unaged. Our findings provide an insight into atmospheric contributions and chemical evolutions for urban-lifestyle SOAs, which could greatly influence the air quality and health risk assessments in urban areas.

Dip angles of active faults from the surface to the seismogenic zone inferred from a 2D numerical analysis of visco-elasto-plastic models: a case study for the Osaka Plain

The geometries (i.e., dip angles) of active faults from the surface to the seismogenic zone are the most important factors used to evaluate earthquake ground motion, which is crucial for seismic hazard assessments in urban areas. In Osaka, a metropolitan city in Japan, there are several active faults (e.g., the Uemachi and Ikoma faults), which are inferred from the topography, the attitude of active faults in surface trenches, the seismic reflection profile at shallow depths (less than 2 km), and the three-dimensional distribution of the Quaternary sedimentary layers. The Uemachi and Ikoma faults are N–S-striking fault systems with total lengths of 42 km and 38 km, respectively, with the former being located ~ 12 km west of the latter; however, the geometries of each of the active faults within the seismogenic zone are not clear. In this study, to examine the geometries of the Uemachi and Ikoma faults from the surface to the seismogenic zone, we analyze the development of the geological structures of sedimentary layers based on numerical simulations of a two-dimensional visco-elasto-plastic body under a horizontal compressive stress field, including preexisting high-strained weak zones (i.e., faults) and surface sedimentation processes, and evaluate the relationship between the observed geological structures of the Quaternary sediments (i.e., the Osaka Group) in the Osaka Plain and the model results. As a result, we propose geometries of the Uemachi and Ikoma faults from the surface to the seismogenic zone. When the friction coefficient of the faults is ~ 0.5, the dip angles of the Uemachi and Ikoma faults near the surface are ~ 30°–40° and the Uemachi fault has a downward convex curve at the bottom of the seismogenic zone, but does not converge to the Ikoma fault. Based on the analysis in this study, the dip angle of the Uemachi fault zone is estimated to be approximately 30°–40°, which is lower than that estimated in the previous studies. If the active fault has a low angle, the width of the fault plane is long, and thus the estimated seismic moment will be large.

Development of Flood Vulnerability Assessment Method considering Urban Characteristics: Daegu Metropolitan City

This study intends to develop a flood vulnerability assessment method and flood damage reduction measures in urban areas for Daegu Metropolitan City. The proxy variables for the flood vulnerability assessment were calculated using the previously investigated proxy variables for urban areas. The Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI) of the urban area was proposed using the Regional Significance Index (RSI), which indicates the importance of each region, and the Damage Possibility Index (DPI) for flood damage data. The RSI selected four proxy variables: population density, vulnerable population ratio, property density, and area ratio of major facilities. The DPI also selected four proxy variables: area ratio of low land, the impervious area ratio, status of domestic disaster risk district, and flood occurrence record. Eight proxy variables were selected and the FVI of urban areas calculated using multiplicative utility functions. As a result of the calculation, the FVI of Daegu Metropolitan City was found to be high in the central urban areas and by the streams. The results of this study are expected to be used for flood vulnerability assessments in urban areas and establishing flood damage reduction measures.

Accessibility of the urban environment for people with limited mobility using the example of Arkhangelsk

The aim of the study is to assess the availability of urban space for people with limited mobility (PLM). Research objectives: - assessment of urban areas - determining the level of accessibility of the urban environment by assigning accessibility indices to certain territories (quarters); - testing using the example of separate quarters of the city of Arkhangelsk. Two non-adjacent city blocks located in its central part were selected for testing. According to the results of the study, it is possible to conclude that the availability of the urban environment for PLM in the selected quarters is: 37.2% for the first quarter, 42.1% for the second quarter. There is no comprehensive infrastructure suitable for PLM in the territory. Among the main problems are poor coating of footpaths, barriers in the form of curbs, the absence of railings on stairs, canopies and ramps, as well as the lack of equipped recreation places. A feature and advantage of the method is that the purpose of the study is not just a description of the quality characteristics of accessibility, but the determination of specific indicators of the security of various complex components of a comfortable urban environment. Integrated monitoring of the quality of the urban environment for PLM will allow the implementation of targeted programs and activities, taking into account their relevance to the expected effects. This contributes to the prudent use of financial resources. The totality of development programs and measures for individual territories will determine the development strategy of the city as a whole.

Investigation of hybrid polarimetric features for tsunami-induced damage assessment of urban areas

ABSTRACTIn this study, a polarimetric scattering investigation was performed by using hybrid polarimetric (HP) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to determine the optimum HP feature for urban damage assessment related to the Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami disaster on 11 March 2011. To minimize the effect of uncertainty on the feature selection techniques, quantitative analysis of HP features derived from Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS)/Phase Array type L-band SAR (PALSAR) data was conducted. First, preliminary selection was performed based on the Jeffries–Matusita (JM) distance, which was applied to evaluate the separability between damaged and undamaged areas. Second, random forest (RF) was implemented to improve the reliability and determine the most relevant feature based on importance score analysis. Accordingly, comparative analysis was performed and compared with quad polarimetric (QP) SAR data in terms of urban damage levels. The experimental results demonstrate that the circular polarization ratio is the most informative feature for the identification of urban damage and can be used to discriminate different damage levels, even in areas with large polarization orientation angle (POA).

Quantifying Short-Term Urban Land Cover Change with Time Series Landsat Data: A Comparison of Four Different Cities.

Short-term characteristics of urban land cover change have been observed and reported from satellite images, although urban landscapes are mainly influenced by anthropogenic factors. These short-term changes in urban areas are caused by rapid urbanization, seasonal climate changes, and phenological ecological changes. Quantifying and understanding these short-term characteristics of changes in various land cover types is important for numerous urban studies, such as urbanization assessments and management. Many previous studies mainly investigated one study area with insufficient datasets. To more reliably and confidently investigate temporal variation patterns, this study employed Fourier series to quantify the seasonal changes in different urban land cover types using all available Landsat images over four different cities, Melbourne, Sao Paulo, Hamburg, and Chicago, within a five-year period (2011–2015). The overall accuracy was greater than 86% and the kappa coefficient was greater than 0.80. The R-squared value was greater than 0.80 and the root mean square error was less than 7.2% for each city. The results indicated that (1) the changing periods for water classes were generally from half a year to one and a half years in different areas; and, (2) urban impervious surfaces changed over periods of approximately 700 days in Melbourne, Sao Paulo, and Hamburg, and a period of approximately 215 days in Chicago, which was actually caused by the unavoidable misclassification from confusions between various land cover types using satellite data. Finally, the uncertainties of these quantification results were analyzed and discussed. These short-term characteristics provided important information for the monitoring and assessment of urban areas using satellite remote sensing technology.

INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT OF THE CONDITION OF URBANIZED AREAS

Based on the use of statistical information from various organizations, an assessment of the state of the urbanized territories has been performed on a set of indicative indicators. To this aim, a method of complex estimation based on the representation of states of objects through a combination of values of indicators and joint events of their simultaneous observation, as well as on the establishment of empirical distributions of such events was proposed. The application of the method allowed to propose calculated dependencies for the ranking of objects. Specifi c examples show that based on the proposed method, a comparative assessment of urban areas is possible. The obtained results can be used in the formation of goals and the development of measures to ensure a balanced development of urban infrastructure, as well as in the development of urban development programs and management decisions in the fi eld of environmental safety of urban economy.

High-resolution polarimetric SAR image decomposition of urban areas based on a POA correction method

ABSTRACTPolarimetric decomposition in urban areas is important for monitoring the speed of city expansion and studying its ecological environmental influence. Using fully Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) is a way to keep large range urban change under observation. PolSAR images allow us to detect the scattering mechanisms using polarimetric target decomposition methods. Much of the research on decomposition methods has stated that the polarization orientation angle (POA) would affect the result of decomposition. The available deorientation methods cannot rotate built-up areas with large POAs. As a result, some urban areas are still misjudged as volume scattering dominant. In this paper, an algorithm for decomposition of high-resolution urban area images based on a POA correction method is proposed. First, for high-resolution images of built-up areas, the POA changes radically pixel by pixel. An approximate assessment of urban areas can be done using POA randomness. Then, in order to search out the true POAs of large dominant POA areas (most built-up regions), the linear approximation method is used to locate POAs that can minimize the cross-polarized term. Thereby, the inaccurate decomposition that occurs by the deviation of POA can be fixed, and the accuracy of the results is improved.

Using structural damage statistics to derive macroseismic intensity within the Kathmandu valley for the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake

We make and analyze structural damage observations from within the Kathmandu valley following the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake to derive macroseismic intensities at several locations including some located near ground motion recording sites. The macroseismic intensity estimates supplement the limited strong ground motion data in order to characterize the damage statistics. This augmentation allows for direct comparisons between ground motion amplitudes and structural damage characteristics and ultimately produces a more constrained ground shaking hazard map for the Gorkha earthquake. For systematic assessments, we focused on damage to three specific building categories: (a) low/mid-rise reinforced concrete frames with infill brick walls, (b) unreinforced brick masonry bearing walls with reinforced concrete slabs, and (c) unreinforced brick masonry bearing walls with partial timber framing. Evaluating dozens of photos of each construction type, assigning each building in the study sample to a European Macroseismic Scale (EMS)-98 Vulnerability Class based upon its structural characteristics, and then individually assigning an EMS-98 Damage Grade to each building allows a statistically derived estimate of macroseismic intensity for each of nine study areas in and around the Kathmandu valley. This analysis concludes that EMS-98 macroseismic intensities for the study areas from the Gorkha mainshock typically were in the VII–IX range. The intensity assignment process described is more rigorous than the informal approach of assigning intensities based upon anecdotal media or first-person accounts of felt-reports, shaking, and their interpretation of damage. Detailed EMS-98 macroseismic assessments in urban areas are critical for quantifying relations between shaking and damage as well as for calibrating loss estimates. We show that the macroseismic assignments made herein result in fatality estimates consistent with the overall and district-wide reported values.

Microzonation models for Montreal with respect to $$\hbox {V}_\mathrm{S30}$$ V S 30

The development of seismic microzonation maps is now a prerequisite for performing advanced seismic hazards and seismic risk assessments in urban areas. Current microzonation procedures are based on classifying site response in soil categories based on $$\hbox {V}_\mathrm{S30}$$ . In many practical cases, information on shear wave velocity is sparse and analysts must resort to other sources of information to develop zonation maps over large regions. For Montreal, Canada, a geostatistical approach combining a large dataset of boreholes, $$\hbox {f}_{0}$$ data from the H/V method, and a limited number of shear wave velocity measurements is proposed. Predictive equations are developed with the different types of information and partly used to create three different $$\hbox {V}_\mathrm{s30}$$ models: A first model based on the total thickness of soft soil deposits (One Layer Model), a second model based on stratigraphy obtained from borehole data (Four Layers Model) and a third model (Composite Model) that combines data from the previous two models with data from seismic surveys. Variability and uncertainty associated with the choice of the models are described and estimated using a second moment analysis. The composite model which combines borehole, $$\hbox {f}_{0}$$ and Vs data is shown to be the most accurate compared to models derived only from borehole and Vs data (an average reduction of 40 % of the squared error) and shows good agreement with the geological map for clay and sand locations with soils classes C and D (54 % agreement on average). This approach opens new perspectives for $$\hbox {V}_\mathrm{s30}$$ microzonation in urban areas when budgets for Vs surveys are limited.

Multi-taxonomic diversity patterns in a neotropical green city: a rapid biological assessment

The growing number of urban ecology studies has raised concern about the importance of comprehending the ecological patterns and processes of urban areas in order to manage and plan them properly. In this study, we performed a rapid descriptive ecological assessment of the biodiversity patterns in a neotropical mid-sized urban area from a multi-taxonomic approach, contrasting seven taxonomic groups (i.e., vascular plants, fungi, ants, butterflies, beetles, amphibians, birds) in areas with different degree of urbanization intensity. Results of this study show that diversity patterns differ depending on the taxonomic group; thus, it was not possible to generalize specific trends in species richness, abundance, and species composition because each taxon seems to respond differently to the process or level of urbanization. Our results also highlight the relevance of using multi-taxonomic approaches to understand the relationship between biodiversity and urban environments, and underline potential benefits and limitations of using each of the studied groups when considering rapid biodiversity assessments. Based on our results, we suggest the following recommendations when performing rapid biological assessments in urban areas: evaluate as many taxa as possible, choosing the set of taxonomic groups in relation to the objectives of the study, wide the temporal and spatial survey window as much as possible, focus on several biodiversity measures, and interpreting results cautiously, as rapid assessments do not necessarily reflect ecological patterns, but just part of the history.

Increasing the spatial resolution of air quality assessments in urban areas: A comparison of biomagnetic monitoring and urban scale modelling

Increasing the spatial resolution of air quality assessments in urban environments is designated as a priority area within current research. Biomagnetic monitoring and air quality modelling are both methodologies able to provide information about the spatial variation of particulate pollutant levels within urban environments. This study evaluates both methods by comparing results of a biomagnetic monitoring campaign at 110 locations throughout Antwerp, Belgium, with modelled pollutant concentrations of PM10 and NO2. Due to the relation of biomagnetic monitoring with railway traffic, analyses were conducted for both all locations (n = 110) and railway traffic excluded locations (n = 67). While the general spatial variation, land use comparison and the relation with traffic intensity were comparable between the two applied methodologies, an overall bad agreement is obtained when the methodologies are correlated to each other. While no correlation was found between SIRM and PM10 results (p = 0.75 for n = 110 and p = 0.68 for n = 67), a significant but low (r ≤ 0.33) correlation was found between SIRM and NO2 (p < 0.01 for n = 110 and p = 0.04 for n = 67). While biomagnetic monitoring and air quality modelling are both able to provide high spatial resolution information about urban pollutant levels, we need to take into account some considerations. While uncertainty in the biomagnetic monitoring approach might arise from the processes that determine leaf particulate deposition and the incorporation of multiple emission sources with diverging magnetic composition, air quality modelling remains an approximation of reality which implies its dependency on accurate emission factors, implication of atmospheric processes and representation of the urban morphology. Therefore, continuous evaluation of model performance against measured data is essential to produce reliable model results. Nevertheless, this study demonstrates that in addition to telemetric monitoring networks, the combination of both air quality modelling and biomagnetic monitoring is a valuable approach to provide insights into the variation of atmospheric pollutants in heterogeneous urban environments.

Comportamiento Sísmico de los Edificios de Lorca

After the earthquake of Lorca, May 11, 2011, the Geological Institute of Catalonia (IGC), the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Spanish Association for Earthquake Engineering (AEIS) organized a technical visit in order to compile information that allow to calibrate, to verify and to validate the methods used in seismic risk assessments in urban areas. This article summarizes the highlights regarding the vulnerability of residential buildings and buildings of special importance such as hospitals and schools.

Quality of source water and drinking water in urban areas of Myanmar.

Myanmar is one of the least developed countries in the world, and very little information is available regarding the nation's water quality. This report gives an overview of the current situation in the country, presenting the results of various water-quality assessments in urban areas of Myanmar. River, dam, lake, and well water sources were examined and found to be of generally good quality. Both As and F− were present in relatively high concentrations and must be removed before deep wells are used. Heterotrophic plate counts in drinking water were highest in public pots, followed by nonpiped tap water, piped tap water, and bottled water. Measures need to be taken to improve low-quality water in pots and nonpiped tap waters.

Adapting developing country epidemiological assessment techniques to improve the quality of health needs assessments in developed countries

BackgroundWe were commissioned to carry out three health assessments in urban areas of Dublin in Ireland. We required an epidemiologically robust method that could collect data rapidly and inexpensively. We were dealing with inadequate health information systems, weak planning data and a history of inadequate recipient involvement in health service planning. These problems had also been identified by researchers carrying out health assessments in developing countries. This paper reports our experience of adapting a cluster survey model originally developed by international organisations to assess community health needs and service coverage in developing countries and applying our adapted model to three urban areas in Dublin, IrelandMethodsWe adapted the model to control for socio-economic heterogeneity, to take account of the inadequate population list, to ensure a representative sample and to account for a higher prevalence of degenerative and chronic diseases. We employed formal as well as informal communication methods and adjusted data collection times to maximise participation.ResultsThe model we adapted had the capacity to ascertain both health needs and health care delivery needs. The community participated throughout the process and members were trained and employed as data collectors. The assessments have been used by local health boards and non-governmental agencies to plan and deliver better or additional services.ConclusionWe were able to carry out high quality health needs assessments in urban areas by adapting and applying a developing country health assessment method. Issues arose relating to health needs assessment as part of the planning cycle and the role of participants in the process.